Manufacture Alabama expressed on Wednesday their concerns that Public Service Commission candidate James “Jim” Bonner is unfit to hold office in the state.
Bonner’s posts on social media have been called: racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic. Bonner’s attempt to defuse the situation by going on Birmingham area talk radio with Scott Beason did little to improve his popularity among the Republican leadership.
The problem is that many influential Republicans and business leaders aren’t convinced that he is losing. Retired Congressman Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, remains wildly popular with Republicans, particularly in the 1st Congressional District where he served.
Manufacture Alabama has been vocal in their opposition to Bonner’s election and their view that he is unfit to hold office.
“We are very concerned that a majority of Republican voters mistake Jim Bonner who is a terribly flawed candidate for the PSC with former Congressman Jo Bonner,’ Manufacture Alabama President George Clark said in a statement. “It is important for all voters to know that Jim Bonner has serious financial, legal and other problems including many social media posts that are racist, anti-women, anti-Semitic and extremely shocking and offensive. We feel strongly that Jim Bonner should not be elected to any position in Alabama much less one as important as the PSC.”
Manufacture Alabama told the Alabama Political Reporter that they are alarmed that a person could be selected as the Republican nominee for the PSC who they claim is clearly unfit to hold any elected office, much less an office of such great importance.
Tuesday night, Bonner, deleted much of the information off of his Facebook that is being referred to by his many detractors, but APR has kept a few that are being widely referenced including the n-word.
His detractors also charge that:
Bonner failed to pay his income taxes for several years, resulting in a current IRS debt in excess of $100,000. Some $30,000 plus of these debts were part of Bonner’s recent bankruptcy filing and are not disputed.
Bonner failed to make $44,000 in court-ordered alimony payments to his former wife, resulting in a contempt of court filing against him. During his bankruptcy proceedings, Bonner admitted to stopping the payments against a court order.
Both failing to pay his federal income taxes and failing to pay court-ordered alimony payments are crimes. And since neglecting to pay federal taxes for several years could constitute a willful neglect, it could be deemed by the IRS as a felony.
Making each of the above instances more likely to end in criminal charges is the fact that Bonner also failed to make his agreed-upon bankruptcy settlement payments, resulting in his bankruptcy plan being dismissed. According to bankruptcy attorneys, such an act by a bankruptcy court is extremely rare, and typically only occurs when an individual makes no attempt to either make the plan payments or work with the court on the alternative settlement.
Bonner also has six additional UCC liens relating to his failed businesses. Those loans, from TVA Federal Credit Union and Valley Credit Union, total into the tens of thousands and resulted in Bonner giving up his share of a real estate business.
Instead of working with the bankruptcy court to settle his myriad debts -including debts to individuals and community banks — Bonner, who has claimed he’s unable to work because he is disabled, has filed again to run for public office.
They have even criticized him a long-time member of AEA, having served as one of its delegates, and said during his campaign for Senate that he was a “Republicrat.”
